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Kenya: Pandemic Health Workers Lack Protection

Ensure Safety During Covid-19; Address Plight of Frontline Workers

(Nairobi) – The Kenyan government has failed to fulfill its pledge to support health workers fighting Covid-19, exposing them to avoidable risks of trauma, infection, and even death, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s haphazard,…
Healthcare workers protest outside the Ministry of Health headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya to honor one of their colleagues, Dr. Stephen Mogusu, a 28-year-old health worker who succumbed to Covid-19.
News

Cuba: Peaceful Protesters Systematically Detained, Abused

Arbitrary Detention, Ill-Treatment, Abusive Trials Affect Hundreds

(Washington, DC) – The Cuban government has systematically engaged in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021, Human Rights…
Uniformed police officers shove a man into a car by the head
News

Africa: Covid-19 Aid Falling Short

Rise in Poverty, Hunger Shows Need to Expand Social Protection

(Nairobi) – The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for African governments to strengthen social protection systems and fulfill people’s rights to social security and an adequate standard of living. Many African governments introduced…
Africa Social
News

Kenya Censors Another Gay-Themed Film

Struggle for LGBT People’s Rights Will Not Be Silenced

I have never met Samuel, the gay Kenyan protagonist of the acclaimed documentary “I Am Samuel.” But I feel as if I know him. Not only does filmmaker Peter Murimi’s quiet, steady, honest portrayal of Samuel’s daily life create a sense of intimacy and…
“I Am Samuel” documentary, 2020
Report

“I Had Nowhere to Go”

Summary Rose’s husband was abusive prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. He had been physically violent on multiple occasions, had threatened to kill her by stabbing or strangling her, and verbally abused her. The abuse continued and escalated after Rose…
News

Witness: Sexual Violence During Kenya’s Covid-19 Lockdown

Government Should Support Community Activists Working to Protect Survivors

Gladys Koskey, 48, has always kept her home in Trans Mara, southwestern Kenya, open to friends and relatives. But in the past decade, her home has also become an important refuge for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Gladys leads a group of…
Gladys Koskey helps a nine-years-old rape survivor who lives in her home with her writing.
News

Kenya: Survivors of Gender-Based Violence Lack Help

Effective Law Enforcement, Access to Shelter, Financial Support Are Critical

(Nairobi) – The Kenyan government’s response to gender-based violence during the Covid-19 pandemic has been too little, too late, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 61-page report, “‘I Had Nowhere to Go’: Violence against Women…
The back of a girl staring out a window
News

Cuba: Telecommunications Decree Curtails Free Speech

Latin American, US, EU Leaders Should Condemn New Restrictions on Internet

(Washington, DC) – A new decree and accompanying legislation announced by the Cuban government severely restricts freedom of expression online and threatens users’ privacy, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments in Latin America, as well as the…
Cuban Rolando Remedios shows a photo on his mobile phone of him being arrested during the July 11 protests. Remedios was released on August 6. 
News

Kenya Needs an Inclusive Social Protection Policy

Doris is a 75-year-old woman from Kayaba informal settlement in Nairobi. As with most families in the settlement, her house is a single dilapidated room with mud walls, a corrugated iron roof, and dirt floors. There is no clean running water, and she…
People stand outside a purple building with a mural on it that says "Corona is Real"
Report

“We Are All Vulnerable Here”

Summary On March 27, 2020, Kenyan authorities introduced measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, including a dusk-to-dawn curfew and a directive to Kenyans to work from home. For “Wanjiku,” a 27-year-old pre-school teacher and single…
News

Questions about Money

Low-Income Communities Miss out on Kenya’s Covid-19 Relief

Jane Mbula, 50, a community worker in Mukuru Kayaba in eastern Nairobi, followed the news around Covid keenly. She heard the news in March 2020 when Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the first Covid-19 case in the country. The president later…
People stand outside a purple building with a mural on it that says "Corona is Real"
News

Kenya: Irregularities Mar Covid-19 Cash Transfers

Anti-Graft Agency Should Investigate

(Nairobi) – Kenyan authorities failed to design a social security program that would guarantee everyone, not just a few, an adequate standard of living during the pandemic, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 66-page…
News

Letter to the Editor: the Turmoil in Cuba

Just as largely unprecedented mass street protests erupted on the streets in Cuba [“In the streets, Cubans ‘have lost their fear’, ” front page, July 13], the Coast Guard’s interdiction of a boat off the coast of Key West and summary return of Cubans…
A Coast Guard Station Marathon boat crew and 15 migrants aboard 45-foot Response Boat-Medium near Big Pine Key, Florida on July 3, 2021. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Estrada. Source: United States Coast Guard
News

Cuba Responds to Landmark Demonstrations with Brutal Repression

Internet Outages as Protesters Are Detained, Held Incommunicado

Since July 11, thousands of Cubans have taken to the streets across the country in landmark demonstrations protesting longstanding restrictions on rights, scarcity of food and medicines, and the government’s poor response to the Covid-19 pandemic.…
Plainclothes officers detain a protester during a protest in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, July 11, 2021. 
Video

Kenyans Demand Covid-19 Aid President Kenyatta Promised

(Nairobi, July 20, 2021) – Kenyan authorities failed to design a social security program that would guarantee everyone, not just a few, an adequate standard of living during the pandemic, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 77-page…
News

Kenya: Investigate Deportation of Turkish National

Hold Officials Responsible to Account

(Nairobi) – Kenyan authorities should investigate the alleged abduction and eventual deportation of Selahaddin Gülen to Turkey despite a Kenyan court order prohibiting his deportation, Human Rights Watch said today. The deportation of Gülen, a Turkish…
People wait outside a courthouse before the trial of 475 defendants in Ankara, Turkey
News

Cuba: Clampdown on Artists, Journalists

Arbitrary Detention, Restrictions on Movement, Communications

(Washington, DC) – The Cuban government is committing systematic human rights abuses against independent artists and journalists, Human Rights Watch said today as it released a video on the abuses. In recent months, Cuban authorities have jailed…
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, an artist who has vocally criticized repression in Cuba, speaks during an interview at his home in Havana, Cuba, on May 2, 2018. Police and intelligence officers in Cuba have repeatedly harassed and detained Alcántara.
Video

What Cuba doesn't want you to know about its artists and musicians.

(Washington, DC, June 30, 2021) – The Cuban government is committing systematic human rights abuses against independent artists and journalists, Human Rights Watch said today as it released a video on the abuses. In recent months, Cuban authorities…